Chair's Welcome

It is well known that Physics is the science that can assist in the understanding of how everything works. From the subatomic world to the large stars and galaxies, the laws of physics are identical.   Studying physics triggers critical thinking, strengthens quantitative reasoning, and enhances teamwork capabilities, thus, enabling physics graduates to work in multidisciplinary environments, including industry, academia, and the financial sector.

The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) is a distributed campus university.  The Department of Physics and Astronomy has two locations, one is in the Interdisciplinary Academic Building in Brownsville (BINAB) and in the Science Building (ESCNE) in the Edinburg. Both cities are located in South Texas in the Lower Rio Grande valley. We offer the degrees of BS, MS, and Ph.D. in Physics and the Master of Science in Interdisciplinary Studies in Science and Technology (MSIS). Our Ph.D. in Physics admitted its first students in Spring 2022. We offer competitive assistantships to qualified graduate students (MS, MSIS, and Ph.D.). Most of our undergraduate students come from underrepresented groups in science. Our graduate students come from all over -- the local RGV region, around Texas, out-of-state and from abroad. Most of our graduates are employed in academia, national laboratories, industry, and secondary education.

Our current faculty have expertise in Gravitational Wave Astronomy, Radio Astronomy, Astrophysics, Nuclear, and High-Energy Theoretical Physics, Experimental Nano Physics, Computational, and Experimental Material Science, Experimental Condensed Matter Physics, AMO Physics, Biophysics, and Physics Education. We currently have two research centers, the Gravitational Wave Astronomy Center (CGWA) and the Center for Radio Astronomy (CARA), whereas we aspire to add a third center in Material Science. We are expecting to further expand our areas of research in Quantum Information technology both computationally and experimentally. Our faculty are highly successful in obtaining external funding support and publishing their work in high-impact journals.

In our department, we value student engagement and all they contribute to our department. Students are engaged in research at both undergraduate and graduate levels, thus serving in publications as co-authors and presenting their research in national and international level conferences. We pay attention to student mentoring, which is one of the keys to student success. Our graduate students have a mentor in addition to their research advisor which assists not only in coursework selection but also with personal issues, such as housing. 

Welcome to our department!

Nikolaos (Nicholas) Dimakis,

Professor and Department Chair